On U.S. Soil!

Unfortunately my first U.S. experience in four months is occurring in the Philly airport: luckily I have not spotted any mice yet, (you may remember that when my flight was delayed for 7 hours on the way here, I was in a mouse-infested area. eww).  Also luckily, they have free internet, so I can make use of my extra-long layover and recap my last few days in Paris.

I spent my last week revisiting some of my favorite places in Paris: the Louvre, the Musee d'Orsay, Luxembourg and Tuileries Gardens, and of course the Eiffel Tower.  I ate crepes, fondue, frog legs (!!!), and quiche.  I spent my last night sitting on the Champ de Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower, drinking wine with friends and watching it sparkle.  

I sad goodbye to my friends (sad), and goodbye to Paris (worse).  I said goodbye to my host family (though they were great, this wasn't as hard).  I don't think I can put into words what an amazing experience my four months studying abroad were.  I showed up speaking basically no French, and now I can get by just fine on my own.  I still can't quite believe that I lived with a French family for four months and spoke only French to them!

I think what I am even more proud of beyond developing my language skills is that I have become much more independent and confident in my capabilities.  It certainly was not easy: I was the only one in my program who lived outside of the city, I got harassed more often because my red hair makes me look very, very not French and therefore a fun target for creepers, and the whole language barrier thing didn't help either!  This was the first time that I have lived without a roommate I was close with: that means I suffered through all of the 4am night bus rides followed by 8am classes all on my own.  Luckily...the negative things are few and far between in comparison to all of the positives.  I am so lucky that I was able to do something so enlightening and enriching at such a young age.  

I'm about to catch my flight home to Connecticut (I instinctively typed Paris first...), and I can't wait to spend the next week and a half catching up with family and friends (and also catching up on sleep..and American culture...and seeing Molly!)  Then, it's off to DC to intern   I'll report back soon on my reverse-culture-shock observations and also with my pictures from the past week, as the two I've put here are stolen from a friend!

Au Revoir, Paris

Any fleeting thoughts I had of a deep and meaningful last blog entry in Paris have dissipated: the internet at my apartment isn't working! My last week has been wonderful and I'm in utter shock that not any am I leaving Paris, but that as of Thursday, I'm a senior in college. Anyway, I'll be stateside Sunday evening, a bientot!

You know you've been in France for a while when..

A metro strike doesn't even phase you anymore! 

The first metro strike was a huge deal, and they've become subsequently less and less significant for me: I just leave half an hour earlier than normal and hope for the best, I don't have any other options!  Now that we all know what metro lines to avoid on strike days..they don't seem like a big deal at all.  I'm used to it by now: just like I'm used to showing up to the bus stop only to see that there won't be a bus at all that day because a demonstration is blocking the bus route.

Another confirmation of my being in France: during my four hour exam on Saturday, we weren't allowed to go to the bathroom, drink, or eat, but when the girl next to me raised her hand and begged to be let out of class to smoke a cigarette, the professor let her! 

On more personal terms.. I know I've been living with a host family for a while when I don't even blink an eye when my dinner consists of: a hard boiled egg, raw radishes, and cauliflower baked with bacon bits.  Only just now, an hour later, did I realize how bizarre of a meal that was.   

Parisian Hollywood

SO the most exciting thing that's happened to me since my last post was...

I saw Rachel Bilson and Hayden Christensen! 

(not my picture...), a few friends and I stopped into a FNAC, which is similar to a Best Buy, and as we were gathering by the door to go, we spotted them!  Just hoppin' on the escalator to do some shopping.  Since Cannes Film Festival just ended on Sunday, I guess a lot of celebrities will be in town: I am keeping my eyes open for them!

Other things I've done include mainly studying, babysitting, shopping, and lots of picnics!  Since I don't have my 8am course this week, it's been wonderful to sleep in a bit.  Tomorrow I have my oral exam: I'm still not exactly sure how I'll come up with enough French to talk about a picture for 12 minutes..but at least it will be over with.  Tomorrow night is our farewell dinner: sad but it will be fun to dress up and go to a nice restaurant with everyone (for free!)  We are going to Le Grand Colbert which is where part of Something's Gotta Give with Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton was filmed!  

The film was also shot in Place des Vosges, which is quite near my student center and I walk through it all the time.  Mom--prepare the DVD so I can watch it when I return to chez nous!

Also...today is my friend AMANDA'S 21st birthday! I can't wait to see friends and family when I get home!

Paris When it Sizzles

I must say that studying isn't quite so bad when this is the view...I know I'm spoiled.  In front of the Eiffel Tower is the peace monument.

What a wonderful weekend!  Saturday's 4 hour long French exam was challenging, but I'm just relieved that it's over with.  My host family was gone for the weekend so I had a few friends over to celebrate the completion of our grammar classes...then we all went out together to continue the celebration.

Today I slept in and met friends for a great lunch.  We had a wonderful time and that's when it really hit me: I only have a week left in Paris.  Now that the weather's great and I've established an amazingly fun life here, the last thing I want to do is go!  I've gotten close with the people in my program, we've all become quite familiar with the city, we all have our favorite bars and other places to go.  Why leave NOW!?  (Note: Leaving will not be ALL bad because I am super excited to see family and friends and to be in DC for the summer.)

After lunch, we headed to the Hotel Carnavalet, a museum that showcases the history of the city of Paris.  I'm glad that I saved it until now because I know quite a bit about the history and geography now, and also because the information is posted only in French-- now that I'm more comfortable with the language, I could understand most of it.  

Coming up this week.. I'll be babysitting, prepping for Wednesday's oral exam and Thursday's civilization class exam, shopping, picnicking, and just being out and about as much as possible!  As for the not so nice things, I'll need to squeeze in some packing and probably a mental breakdown at some point because: I come home in seven days. 

I'm done with class?

One of the things I love most about Paris is that there are so many parks!  There are big ones such as the Luxembourg Gardens and the Champ de Mars, and smaller ones like Parc Belleville and   This week I've checked out two new ones: Parc Monceau and the Jardin des Plantes.  Also, I spent some time studying in the Jardin des Tuileries, right next to the Louvre.  This week's lovely weather made it a great time for some park exploring.  

Here is part of the fountain in the Tuileries, the building is one of the wings of the Louvre:

Here's the Jardin des Plantes, where I did some reading and studying yesterday morning.  It's huge, has a zoo and a botanical school, as well as a few smaller animal related museums, like paleontology and evolution.

Here is the entrance to Parc Monceau, where I had a great picnic today.  Interesting fact: in 1797, it was the site of landing for the first silk parachute jump.  Also, a fifth-generation park watchmen lives in the top part of this rotunda because it is a semi-private park: six EXTREMELY wealthy families have houses adjacent to the park, and they have 24 hour access to it.  Also, this is one of the few parks in Paris where you can sit on the grass, so that was perfect for a picnic on a warm day!

Here is the classroom where I have spent two hours every weekday for the past (nearly) 4 months:

Today was my last day of grammar class, last Friday was my last day of phonetics class, and I have one measly review session left of my civilization class.  WOW!  Unfortunately this means that I have finals coming up- my huge 4 hour long grammar final this Saturday, an oral exam next Wednesday, and my exam for my civilization class next Thursday.

Luxembourg!

I had one day to use up on my Eurail pass so I decided to go to Luxembourg for the day today.  I literally had no expectations at all, but I figured I may never get the chance to go again so, why not?  I definitely made the right decision because I LOVED it.  It is on a series of hills so some neighborhoods are on top of the hills and some are hundreds of feet below in the valleys.  

I was by myself, and since it was a Sunday most things were closed, so all I did was walk around all day- I must have walked at least 6 or 7 miles!  I am going to let the photos mostly speak for themselves, but I found the city gorgeous.  Much of the military walls are still intact from as early as the 10th century.  

Did you know the country of Luxembourg is about the size of Rhode Island?  

Also, Luxembourg still has a royal family- the Grand Ducal family!  I spotted their former royal palace today but couldn't get a good picture due to the guards and gate.  

Also yesterday I did lots of exploring around Paris!  I finally went to the Pompidou modern art museum: really liked it!  For me, the most interesting part is the exoskeletal construction of the building:  things like pipes, ducts, and even the escalators are on the outside of the building.  Also, there were some interesting Dali and Mondrian pieces.  Besides that I saw Angels and Demons (in English), which I really enjoyed.  This week I am doing a bit of babysitting and A LOT of studying for my big final on Saturday!

A curiously American week so far

My week has felt so American thus far!  Today everyone in the program had our first and only paper of the semester due.  Since none of us have had to write anything since December, it was quite a challenge and even though it was nowhere near as difficult as some of the papers I've done, it took me forever!  For once I actually appreciated the awful weather because forcing myself to write would have been harder if it was beautiful out.

I wrote it on the introduction of coffee in Paris, the mass opening of cafes and coffee houses, and how cafes and coffee have been intertwined with Parisian history.  It was interesting, but lots of research.

Yesterday for lunch, a few of us went to a place called Breakfast in America.  We were all craving pancakes and wow- they were great!  There's a few other American-style places here but this is the first I've been to...

Tonight I'm going to a friend's apartment for dinner which should be nice.  My host mom isn't the best cook so I am REALLY looking forward to going home where my Mom will cook for me (when I am home) and I can actually cook for myself in D.C.  Having no control over what I have for dinner is getting kind of old.

So there you have it-- a week quite like a week in DC- writing papers and eating American food with friends!  Of course, I couldn't go a full four days without doing some exploring, so I spent some time reading in the Arenes de Lutece.  Lutecia was the name for Paris when it was first settled by the Roman empire.  The Arenes de Lutece are the remnants of the coliseum-style amphitheater, now it is a public park.

 

The beauty of Interlaken

Besides skydiving, Kim and I did a whole lot of walking and a whole lot of talking in Interlaken.  The town is TINY, we had a lot of fun just walking around and looking at everything, sitting in a park and enjoying the amazing view, etc.  Kim described it as a "toy town" and I think that describes it well: it didn't feel real, more like a little model town conveniently dropped between two lakes and surrounded by the Swiss Alps.  

If this setting seems ideal for me, that's because it is.  Luckily during one of our walks I found my future home:

Here's pre and post skydiving pictures: surprisingly I am more put together before skydiving, and completely frazzled afterwards.  Also, I'm aware that I appear to have some sort of black eye, but it's because my eyes were watering like crazy from the speed of descent, so my mascara ran and resulted in what you see!

The town is just beautiful, I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

Paragliding is the thing to do in Interlaken if you're not extreme enough to skydive..on Sunday walking through the town we glanced up and saw this:

 

Overall, a wonderful weekend.  Interlaken was delightful, it felt great to be outside of a big city and to appreciate natural beauty, and skydiving was amazing!   Did I mention we had swiss cheese fondue!?

SKYDIVING!

Sorry I couldn't forewarn everyone about skydiving but I didn't want to cause any unnecessary anxiety (especially on my Mom's part!). I was also pretty anxious and definitely questioned what I was getting myself into.

We got picked up from our hostel and headed out to the hangar/airstrip where we got like a 5 minute briefing.. ONLY five minutes. Plus, we only had to sign our names ONCE, can you believe that? In the U.S. we definitely would have had to sign our lives away like 10 times. But don't worry, everything and everyone there is certified both in Switzerland and in the U.S. if that's reassuring at all.

Of course I went tandem with my instructor who was named Hans. When we were the last to get into the plane, I realized that could only mean one thing: we would be the first ones leaving it! Luckily the absolutely amazing scenery calmed me down a bit..except for when they thought it would be hilarious to just open the door midflight in order to scare me.

Once we got to 13,000 feet, they opened the door and the photographer climbed out and stood by the wing. By this time I was all strapped to Hans and I had to swing my legs out and put them on the little step outside of the plane. Then I arched my back, put my legs in between his, and we were off!

We fell 5,000 feet in 40 seconds and even though I expected to scream my head off the entire time, I didn't make a sound! I think I was too busy thinking "WHAT IS GOING ON!?", looking at the amazing scenery, and smiling for the camera.

Then before I knew it, it was time to pull the parachute cord. Hans took care of all of that, all I had to do was grab my shoulders. All the sudden we were going upwards instead of down! One thing I did not expect was that since we had soooo much momentum going, even when we landed on the ground we were still moving SO quickly.

I had about five minutes to enjoy the incredible scenery that was the Swiss Alps and Interlaken. At this point I had to take off my goggles and my eyes watered because of how fast we were going, plus my ears were popping like crazy! Also because of the crazy force of the freefall, both of my shoelaces were untied. I remember thinking, "Great, I only brought one pair of shoes to Switzerland and I'm about to lose them!" At least it would have been a good excuse for shopping..but I didn't end up losing them after all.

Hans decided that while we were gliding down it would be a good idea to take advantage of our speed and do some crazy twists and turns. By the time I was on the ground I thought I was going to vomit, I was so dizzy! When it was time for us to land, the mowed grass lawn we were landing on had other people on it..so we had to land in the unmowed meadow that was beyond it. Here is a picture of me realizing that we would NOT be going down in the designated landing zone...even though we look about ready to land, we didn't for another 50 feet or so.

Once we landed, I was covered in dirt (because we were in the meadow instead of the grass) and basically in shock. I just laid on the ground for a minute wondering what the heck I had just done, then got up and felt the crazy effects of the adrenaline rush.

After all of that, I felt pretty out of sorts so I just sat on the tarmac in front of the hangar for a while. I got to see Kim land and found out that she got to do a back flip out of the plane! Overall it was an amazing experience. I am really glad I did it in the Swiss Alps because the surroundings were absolutely amazing. It was one of the most invigorating things I have ever done, and I'm still kind of shocked that I did it! It's so crazy that what started as a silly idea while Kim and I were sitting in the living room of our apartment actually happened six months later! I would highly suggest doing it and would definitely go again if the opportunity arrose.

Happy Mother's Day

I'd like to take this time out of my lovely weekend in Switzerland to say...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Mom, I miss you lots! Also..happy mother's day to Grandma, Grandmama, all of my lovely aunts and everyone else I know who's a momma! See you all soon...can you believe I'll be home exactly three weeks from today?

GUESS WHAT I JUST DID

I WENT SKYDIVING IN THE SWISS ALPS THIS AFTERNOON.

I jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet, free fell 5,000 feet in 40 seconds, and then paraglided to the ground.

Out of the 7 of us in the plane, I was the first one to go...it was incredible and scary and energizing all at once.

Photos to come on Sunday or Monday..

Yum!

Lovely family friend and former French teacher Lucy (say that 10 times fast!) sent a real treat for me when my parents came!  The book Paris by Pastry by Joyce Slayton Mitchell is all about "stalking the sweet life on the streets of Paris"- just my kind of book! 

I can't decide if the gift was a blessing or a curse because I don't exactly want to return to the U.S. in the form of a whale!  Of course I've enjoyed plenty of delicious pastries thus far but this book really sets apart the champagne from the sparkling wine, if you know what I mean.  Yesterday, I checked out my first Patisserie-Boulangerie from the book which was about 5 minutes away from my classroom.  I got a Chocolatine Amandes which was basically like a crushed chocolate croissant dusted with confectioners sugar, with almonds on top.  YUM!  Thanks Lucy, but I blame you if I come back in whale form!

This weekend I am off to Interlaken, Switzerland.  As you can imagine, the town takes its name because it is situated between two lakes.  Several friends have been there before and I am so excited to see the Swiss Alps!  Did you know I have always said I wanted to honeymoon in Switzerland?  

No honeymoon this time around but I am meeting  my friend Kim there!  She is all done with her program in Madrid and ready for one more adventure before she heads home.  

I do actually go to class!

I've had a few people mention to me that I never talk about school here on my blog.  This is true, and considering that it is actually the reason why I'm here, I'm not sure why I haven't talked about it more often.  

I have my grammar class every day from 8-10am.  I really love this class and it is definitely what helps me the most in terms of speaking French.  Since I have such a long commute (a.k.a. more chance of delays), I typically arrive about 10 minutes early to class, while a majority of the class usually comes in like 5 minutes late.  At this time I usually chit chat with my professor.  

We do lots of different stuff in class but we usually spend about half of the time going over our homework, a quarter of the time learning new things (which we will then review the next day when we have completed homework exercises on it), and a quarter of the time on tests, dictations, listening exercises, and other things that we get graded on. 

I try really hard in class and participate often because I know it's the only way to improve my French!  Also, since everyone else's skills are equally or more lacking than mine, I don't get embarrassed.  

One of the hardest things for me at first was dictations!  With so many accents and words that sound phonetically the same, it took me a while to get into the groove of comprehending what was said well enough to write it down correctly.  Also, my teacher is a really hard grader so even though there might be 100 words and 1000 different ways to mess things up, if I miss 3 accents I will get a 17/20 on the assignment and those of you who know me know that an 85 is NOT something I am typically pleased with (although here I am because they are notoriously hard graders and anything about a 13/20 is equivalent to an "A" in the U.S.)

Today, I finally got great news!  On yesterday's dictation, I got a 20/20!  Since I'm feeling quite triumphant, I'm going to write out the dictation here..for those of you French speakers it will be a good exercise in translation! 

Ce matin, les étudiants ne vont pas en classe.  Ils peuvent dormir plus longtemps, jusqu'à midi.  Ils se reposent parce que tous les jours de la semaine, sauf le samedi et le dimanche, ils ont beaucoup de travail à faire à la maison, ils sont très occupés et très fatigués.

Aujourd'hui, ils vont peut-être sortir avec des amis.  Ils iront faire une grande promenade dans un jardin ou bien sur les quais de la Seine.  Ils veulent s'amuser.  Il ne fait pas chaud mais le ciel est bleu et il n'y a aucun nuage.  C'est vraiment parfait pour passer une bonne journée dehors.

Quand ils rentreront ce soir, ils dîneront ensemble et ensuite ils parleront en écoutant de la musique.  

The Catacombs

Today after class I checked out Paris' Catacombs.  In the 1700's burial practices were very unsanitary and city officials decided to clear out Paris' largest centrally located cemetery, Les Innocents, and put all of the remains underground in old quarries.  

Now you can go more than 20 meters underground and check them out for yourself.  They are creepy, HUGE, and what surprised me the most: wet!  It was kind of disgusting and I didn't want to think about where the occasional water drip was coming from considering that the tunnels are located underneath both the metro and sewer systems.  

As you can see, essentially the Catacombs are huge tunnels with stacks of human bones on either side.  Most of them are arranged in semi-artistic patterns.  It's quite eery as you can imagine.  

There are all kinds of myths about people getting lost in the Catacombs (before they were a tourist attraction).  Also, there is a black line of paint along the ceiling that was originally there to help guide people out if they got lost. 

A (kind of) Luxurious Getaway...

I had the best time in the South of France! Two friends and I got onto a night train on Thursday night and arrived in Nice on Friday morning. The trams in Nice were not working since it was Labor Day here, (the reason why I had a three-day weekend) and our hostel was nice enough to pick us up from the train station and drive us back to the hostel! It used to be a monestary and is set up in the hills overlooking the city and the beach: we wished we had more than one night there.

We couldn't check into our room yet since it was still like 10am so we regrouped, got some coffee, and headed to the beach. A girl at our hostel gave us the tip to go to Villefranche, a tiny beach town 8 minutes away from Nice by train. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL- I have never seen anything like it in my life. We had a great day lying at the beach, people watching, and exploring.

Then we met up with our other friend who had just arrived, and returned to Nice to check out the Old Town and the beach. It was completely charming and the beach was stone: very different but nice to walk along because we didn't have sand stuck to us for the rest of the day! Then we climbed up some steps to an old castle just before sunset.

The next day we had tentatively planned on going to Montecarlo, but our hostel advertised a canyoning trip in the French Alps so we decided to do that instead! It was quite an adventure: our guide picked us up at the hostel on Saturday morning and as we were driving to our starting point, we crossed over into Italy! We then started our hour-long hike in the foothills of the Italian Alps, during which we crossed back over into France.

Then we rappelled down the canyon to get to the river. We ate our lunch (the guide made us ham, beet, and pickle sandwiches..WOOF), then put on wetsuits and helmets and hopped into the water, which ranged from 40-50 degrees (brr!) Canyoning basically consisted of swimming, walking, cliff jumping, and sliding down the river. It was so fun! We all enjoyed the physical activity and adventure. Some of the slides were amazing- like 50 feet in length with twists and turns- I couldn't believe that they were formed naturally when they seemed so much like waterslides!

The best jump we got to do was about 30 feet at the very end.  It was pretty tough looking so the other two girls didn't do it- but the other guy and I  were willing to try.  First you had to lie down on the riverbed, slide down like 5 feet vertically into the really deep water.  Then from the water you had to climb up the rock face on the side of the river.  I was so tired!  Once you finally got there, you could just barely stand-- you just had to jump!  I was pretty scared but it was totally worth it and really fun.  Unfortunately I could not bring my camera with me so I don't have any pictures at all, but here are a couple of photos I found online to demonstrate what we did:  

By this time we had crossed back over into Italy and our adventure was almost done.  We said goodbye to the river and hiked for about 20 minutes back to the car...where we were all very glad to get out of our wetsuits.  Then we drove back to Nice and we all slept along the way-- we were exhausted.  Once we got back to our hostel we got our stuff and hopped on a train to Marseille.  

There weren't any hostels available in Marseille so instead we booked a cheap hotel room for 2 with the plan of sneaking 2 people in.  When we got to the hotel at about 9:30pm Saturday, it was closed!  Locked up with no one in sight!  We called the number and the guy on the other end just gave us the code to enter the hotel, told us our room number, and said that the room was unlocked with the key inside.  It was pretty bizarre: no one came to work at the hotel on Sunday either (also our room did not get cleaned), and on Monday morning we had to both formally check in as well as check out.  

We had paid a 10% deposit on the room but they claimed that we had already paid in full online- and even printed out a receipt!  Of course we didn't argue with that, and when the girl that paid checked her bank statement- she never paid the rest of the amount!  So..paying only 10% of our bill definitely made up for staying in the worst hotel I've ever been in...it could have been the sight of a horror movie, I swear!

On Sunday we walked to the beach from our hotel and spent most of the day relaxing there.  It was not as beautiful as Villefranche, and definitely was more for the locals than for tourists, but we were all exhausted from our canyoning adventure so we weren't picky- a beach is a beach!

 We then explored the old port, then split up and walked around the town.  When we split up, the girl I was with and I realized how SKETCHY of a city Marseille is- we were very glad to have a guy with us the rest of the time because we couldn't walk around for 2 minutes without being approached by creepy guys.

The best part about Marseille was that while we were having a picnic dinner by the water in the old port, an otter swam up!

We skipped class and on Monday morning headed to Aix-en-Provence.  We had planned on checking our bags or getting a locker at the train station...but found out once we got there that they don't do it there!  Luckily I had just brought a backpack and a purse so I sported the waist-strap of my backpack all day..not so attractive but highly functional.

I LOVED Aix-en-Provence.  Somehow it was entirely how I'd envisioned it, and it was great for walking around in.  There are lots of small squares with gardens, fountains, cafes, and great people watching.

 I would have loved to have more time there, it would definitely be a great home-base for a week-long relaxing vacation.  We found a street market along the Cours Mirabeau which had some great vendors: soap, lavender, fabrics, everything that the Provence region of France is famous for!

Overall it was a wonderful weekend.  I definitely want to return to Nice and Aix-en-Provence at some point: Marseille, not so much.  We only ate out once: we picnicked or ate at our hostel the other nights because we were all feeling somewhat poor after so much time in Europe, so our 2.50 euro each hotel stay was certainly a pleasant surprise.  Also, it was great to be able to go somewhere besides Paris and speak French, even though the accent in Marseille was quite difficult to understand.